Additive manufacturing (“3D printing”) has generated significant interest, not only for rapid prototyping, but also for producing final articles. Additive manufacturing processes may involve extruding a polymer material or polymer coated fibers. The extruded material may be deposited in parallel rows in successive layers.
A number of devices and processes for adhesion testing have been developed. Examples of known devices are disclosed in Haber (U.S. Pat. No. 2,544,673), which discloses a method for testing bonding by changes in the capacitance; Miller (U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,761), which discloses a tilting table initial tack test apparatus for adhesive bonds; Humphrey (U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,028), which discloses a device for testing adhesive applied to overlapping portions of a two part sample; and Taylor, Jr et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,282,950), which discloses a method and apparatus for testing the bond strength of materials such as a coating on a substrate. The method includes applying a light curable adhesive. Questo et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 8,347,723) discloses a sonic resonator system for testing the adhesive bond strength of composite materials.
Despite these developments, existing test apparatus and processes may suffer from various drawbacks.